Borderlands 2 strategy, tips, rants

Heads up guys, we just went out of sync with the PC. Total surprise to both us and Gearbox believe it or not. Chinese language support was added in the update, and that doesnt usually warrant a version change, but it did this time.

We are working on the patch now, and should have cross platform multiplayer up before the end of the week.

Frigidman, I'm with tBC here. I was a sniper/pistol accuracy player (until I got fed up with the assassin character around level 50). Ignored anarchy at first with the mechromancer. However, I've now re-specced and absolutely love it. Can't get enough of it in fact. Just blasting away with pistols, assault rifle, etc. and getting ricochet bonuses even with the reduced accuracy is fantastic. I had ~200 anarchy stacks at one point and accidently hit r to reload - was very pissed off and also went from being awesomely powerful to very mortal and under-powered. I've since invested in the skill that doesn't wipe out your stacks for reload just in case...

I fought the same Fm, always went into a battle with full magazines, reloaded every time I stopped shooting, or found cover. I wound up moving my reload key because I kept hitting the damn thing out of years and years of FPS habit. I still hit it out of habit, but now it doesn't do anything. Another skill of Gaige's is quicker reloads, and this really helps make up for it. This is a well thought out game.

I have a legendary electrical grenade that pulls even very large enemies together immobilizing them while it continually electrocutes them. I feel like I have limited Siren powers with it, throw in a hail of elemental gunfire at the unfortunates plastered together and I'm almost sorry for them. Almost. "Screw those guys" as Claptrap once said.

I have put most of my skill points into Gaige's Best Friends Forever skill tree to the point where Deathtrap is granted my shields. The next most prolific skill tree is the Little Big Trouble tree. I only have the first 2 rows activated in the Ordered Chaos skill tree, I just don't want a lot of that stuff. I want my character to be powerful and I especially want Deathtrap to be the biggest, meanest, badest, er... assest, machine on Pandora.

What I love about the turrets and Deathtraps is that it gets everyones attention, they are the main target of the enemy. It allows you to leave cover and spread chaos and destruction from the enemies flanks. It makes for some very interesting and exciting battles with new strategies. Playing the Mechromancer has totally changed how I approach a fight. It's not something that will carry over to other games, and I'm trying to make the most of it while I can. It's caused a total change up in how I war. I'm in no hurry to finish the game, I just love to fight tough fights over and over while experimenting with new approaches.

About running out of ammo, save all the Eridium you can. Always pick it up. If you come to an area that has more Eridium than usual then farm it. The Bloodshot dam is such a place and it is also one of my favorite fights. I've played that fight every which way. Anyway, go to Crazy Earl's in Sanctuary where you can purchase larger ammo storage. Soon you will have all the ammo you need. Also purchase more backpack slots so you can carry a variety of cool and fun alien artifacts, grenades, weapons, and class mods. This has to be the most fun game I've played.

I don't know why you get so many AR alien artifacts. I've been finding a very wide variety of them. I only keep those that boost the elemental effects of my weapons but they are many and varied. It's just the luck of the draw, if I were you I'd avoid Las Vegas right now. Wait till your luck changes.

Heh yes, I keep picking up those AR booster mods. Either that or a mod that increases general weapon damage but with a HUGE loss in accuracy. So, the mod i'm running with right now is one that gives accuracy and reload speed.

I just picked up this insane sniper rifle that is one of those E-Guns, and it shoots sniper bullets insanely fast I have to 'tap' my mouse button to just get one fired off. And it has corrosion, and it apparently goes THROUGH enemies, as I keep seeing my ricochet happen even when I hit an enemy square on. Its not in the description, but its crazy OP sniper for a level 16 char. I end up pulling it out whenever 'Badass Anything' shows up, and I just click a couple times and duck, and watch as he just dissolves.

Oh and yes, dont get me wrong with my rant... this game is one of those truly incredible gems any way you look at it, and it does allow for you to just grab whatever and run out there screaming and blowing the heads off guys or legs, or arms (love those robot enemies)....... there is so much variation, and the complete 'randomness' of so many weapons.

I had picked up this great (in stats) Electrifier grenade that keeps shocking in a radius etc... until I used it. Noticed it bounced around all over the place for about 5 full seconds before it finally settled and then began zapping. The thing was ultimately a total piece of crap as it never went where I wanted it! So I ended up selling it, and using something else. HAH. Such a crazy fun game

-Fm [1oM7]
"I'm not incorruptible, I am so corrupt nothing you can offer me is tempting." - Alfred Bester

Early on after I first finished the game I was farming the Warrior and I found a legendary class mod for Mechromancer. It gives 30% recovery rate increase for the action skill and bumps 6 skill slots by 3 points. Useful skill slots too. Best find so far, I wind up selling all the other class mods I find for my class as totally inferior. Look for those orange spike/flags laying on the ground after a battle. I forget where I got it exactly. I think it was from King Mong in the Eridium Blight on my way to fight farm the Warrior. King Mong is super bullymong that appears intermittently in the path to fight the Warrior. He is not always there but he is well worth the effort as he drops blue, purple, and orange items. You should make it standard operating procedure to farm bosses. You find some really great stuff.

You are describing a rubberized grenade. They are fun to watch but they aren't effective enough. I've tossed a couple during a battle just to find them still bouncing around after everyone is dead. It finds a spot and just detonates all by it's lonesome. I always sell those anymore without testing them. I've come to depend on grenades that spawn child grenades that seek the enemy and return health. I have them in each element. Super effective, fire and forget, deadly as hell. But find something you think is not only effective but you enjoy using, there are so damn many. You should at least try any new weapon. Anything with red text in the description is an unusual gun with unusual properties and you should make it a point to try it out during a fight.

One thing you'll like about the Mechromancer is something you mentioned. A shot can go through an enemy and hit another. I've often killed a couple guys with the same round. It will damage them but will often ricochet off (sometimes in the same line of fire appearing to pass through them) and smack some other guy in the chops. Mordecai will give you a sniper rifle that just blows through shields like they weren't there. They wind up dying with full shields. A very handy sniper rifle for when you encounter shielded enemies which will happen with greater frequency the further you go into the game.

When you develop your ricochet skill you become an order of magnitude more powerful. Firing in the air looses projectile ricochets, so I find myself aiming more at their legs when there is a group of of enemies. It is devastating. Especially with a shotgun or automatic weapon, projectiles pin balling through the crowd. I've had guys behind me catch on fire while I'm shooting guys in front of me. Amazing. Mechromancers rule. As Gaige says, "Accuracy is overrated anyhow".

For this character, just embrase the random chaos. It really is your friend.

Typically when I range through a map I have a sniper rifle in the first slot, a pistol in the second, an automatic weapon (SMG or AR) in the third, and a shotgun for mopping up or close up in your face melee and murder. That varies depending on what I'm about to face. Even with 250 Anarchy stacks my sniper rifle is effective, though not as accurate. You will tend to rely on torso shots rather than your usual critical hit. But with 250 Anarchy your sniper rifle is 437 times more powerful and a torso shot works just fine! Ricochets are 50% damage so you are still hitting at 218 times the force of a non stacked weapon. See what I mean about Anarchy? It is monstrously effective, actually conserving ammo. After a couple Eridium upgrades to my ammo caches, ammo in no longer a concern. It is a completely different way for players like us to play, but it is a lot of fun and it makes a new game of it.

I did discover last night what that odd E-Gun sniper was doing. It apparently has a built in "always ricochet" mod. Every bullet it fires, will bounce once. So what was happening is I would be shooting a guy in the head, and it would be bouncing off and going... elsewhere. They are not guided ricochets, they are like shooting billiards. It will bounce in the manner appropriate for the angle it hit. And yes... sadly, it means bouncing straight back at me if the angle is right, which I unfortunately found out when I got hit with something "OMFG WHAT WAS THAT" and realized it was just MY OWN SHOT. Was not cool. So now I use the weapon very sparingly, and carefully.

It actually unloads 12 sniper bullets in less than a second if I hold the mouse down. Its a bit frightening with all those bullets also bouncing once. However it basically kills any badass in one volley. Frightening indeed.

-Fm [1oM7]
"I'm not incorruptible, I am so corrupt nothing you can offer me is tempting." - Alfred Bester

Oh, and yeah... I end up spending a lot of time 'comparing' guns. After I get chock full, I go through, and test out guns to see how they fire, and if they 'feel right'. Kinda like test driving cars in real life... some may have great stats, but the feel sucks and just aint a good car. Same goes for weapons in this game.

And definitely I try out those red stat guns, to see what they 'mean'. Sometimes they suck, sometimes they are hilarious. I have not usually kept one around for long as they tend to be underpowered for the most part, except for their wacky special stat. There was one recurring one in BL1 that I enjoyed, which was "Pele demands sacrifice!"... which always equated to a fire element weapon that almost always lit guys on fire and spread to other guys. Was... well, I almost couldn't live without one Pele weapon in my list

-Fm [1oM7]
"I'm not incorruptible, I am so corrupt nothing you can offer me is tempting." - Alfred Bester

I did discover last night what that odd E-Gun sniper was doing. It apparently has a built in "always ricochet" mod. Every bullet it fires, will bounce once. So what was happening is I would be shooting a guy in the head, and it would be bouncing off and going... elsewhere. They are not guided ricochets, they are like shooting billiards. It will bounce in the manner appropriate for the angle it hit. And yes... sadly, it means bouncing straight back at me if the angle is right, which I unfortunately found out when I got hit with something "OMFG WHAT WAS THAT" and realized it was just MY OWN SHOT. Was not cool. So now I use the weapon very sparingly, and carefully.

It actually unloads 12 sniper bullets in less than a second if I hold the mouse down. Its a bit frightening with all those bullets also bouncing once. However it basically kills any badass in one volley. Frightening indeed.

Yup, E-Tech sniper rifles are extremely powerful. I normally don't use sniper rifles not that often (mainly SMGs, ARs and pistols) but some of the E-tech sniper rifles are just too ridiculously hefty to ignore. For a while I had one that had not only a high fire rate but also was highly accurate even when not aiming with the scope. I could deal more damage more precisely with it than with other weapon I had at that time.

"We do what we must, because we can."
"Gaming on a Mac is like women on the internet." — "Highly common and totally awesome?"

And definitely I try out those red stat guns, to see what they 'mean'. Sometimes they suck, sometimes they are hilarious. I have not usually kept one around for long as they tend to be underpowered for the most part, except for their wacky special stat. There was one recurring one in BL1 that I enjoyed, which was "Pele demands sacrifice!"... which always equated to a fire element weapon that almost always lit guys on fire and spread to other guys. Was... well, I almost couldn't live without one Pele weapon in my list

Heh, on my current runthrough, almost all the red ones have replaced current weapons I was carrying!

You can rest easy knowing that I have never once been hit by my own ricochets after early on maxing that stat out. So the Mechromancer's ricochets don't conform to the physics of your sniper rifle, just so you know. I love to play with the red stat weapons for a while but unlike Thain I don't keep them around that long. There are a couple of exceptions though, Moxxi gives you a fire shotgun for completing a mission and that shotty just keeps giving and is my shotgun of choice for many level-ups afterwards. You lookin' at my shorty? Another super red text weapon is Tiny Tina's Corrosive Teapot. That is a super kickass pistol that is the last thing any yellow health barred enemy will ever see. It lasts for a looooooong time in the game. I hate to give these two up and I've saved them in my vault in Sanctuary.

Which brings me to the stats, they can be pretty misleading, especially if you have a legendary weapon. In my experience they are much better than the stats alone will suggest. That's why it's important to try them out on an enemy before chucking them as inferior. Also not all the qualities of a gun are listed in the stats as Fm's experience with the ricochet sniper rifle.

After you finish UVHM, you can re-do any of the quests that give you a unique weapon to get a max-level version of that weapon.

Also, you can get Moxxi's fire-SMG at any time by simply giving her enough money. Essentially, you can always have a level-appropriate version of that gun... And oh yeah, it heals you for a portion of the damage it inflicts.

I have a level 48 Mecromancer, never tried the Ordered Chaos tree though. Ordered Chaos always seemed a little too random to me and I really like buffing up the deathtrap. As an "I HAVE to open every box" type player, having an OP deathtrap allowed me to, on occasion, toss him out to do all the dirty work while I meandered around and looted stuffs. I know that might sound boring to some of you but... LOOT!

As fer Grrr'nades, I am especially fond of anything homing and sticky. I had one once that was a homing sticky singularity. That was some good fun. I've also had some very nice fire burst grenade mods. Fire bursts are fun, except when I kill myself with one. Using a fire burst is kind of like turning the sprinklers on the neighbor kids when they're in your yard, only with fire.

E-Tech weapons are nice, except for the freaking darts. Darts, bleh.

I lost my Moxi shotgun from Valentines last year. One of the best shot guns in the game, even though it was only a blue. It was a "DOH!" moment. I don't like to think about it.

I've mostly been playing my Siren lately since the majority of my BL2 time is spent co-op'ing with friends. I think she's level 54 now. I went straight Harmony tree with her so I could help heal and be able to use my phase lock to instant Rez my teammates. That skill has come in handy quite a few times. I think Harmony would only be moderately useful if you're playing solo but in co-op,

Matt Diamond, on 11 March 2014 - 06:01 PM, said:

> Also, you can get Moxxi's fire-SMG at any time by simply giving her enough money.

Can't remember if I saw that or not. How do you know how much? Do you have to give it to her all in one go?

I'm not 100% sure but I think it's about 10K. And I do not believe that you have to give it to her all at once.

I have a level 48 Mecromancer, never tried the Ordered Chaos tree though. Ordered Chaos always seemed a little too random to me and I really like buffing up the deathtrap. As an "I HAVE to open every box" type player, having an OP deathtrap allowed me to, on occasion, toss him out to do all the dirty work while I meandered around and looted stuffs. I know that might sound boring to some of you but... LOOT!

Hahaha, yes, I have been finding myself do this when I'm returning to an area I been too. I got that skill that he gets more time and melee power for every kill. I just let him loose and go looting everything and keep moving. I cleared half of the blood dam with one spawn of him. Mmm loot. Now only if auto-pickup worked worth a damn.

BifBologna, on 11 March 2014 - 09:38 PM, said:

As fer Grrr'nades, I am especially fond of anything homing and sticky. I had one once that was a homing sticky singularity. That was some good fun. I've also had some very nice fire burst grenade mods. Fire bursts are fun, except when I kill myself with one. Using a fire burst is kind of like turning the sprinklers on the neighbor kids when they're in your yard, only with fire.

E-Tech weapons are nice, except for the freaking darts. Darts, bleh.

I found a new 'nade last night I fell in love with. I know I'm only a level 18 Mecro, so I'm still finding new stuff, but this new nade is wicked OP. Its one of them longbow-sticky-bouncy-bullets-flying-corrosion 'nades. The longbow is cool cause it goes where you aim it. Then it sticks to whatever to hit. Then it starts bouncing up and down flinging bullets out in a spray for a full FIVE SECONDS!!! Oh, and it has corrosion to it all hahaha. So freaking powerful. I leveled those 3 badasses that come out with that boss, with one 'nade.

I also found this oddball e-tech gun. Reminds me of the "Needler" from Halo. Shoots darts, they stick to whatever, then 3 seconds later, explode into fire and cause lingering burn damage (on top of their initial explosion).

At first I thought the gun was broken cause i was firing out all these darts and wasn't seeing any immediate effect. Hitting heads, no criticals, shooting torsos, not seeing them hurt. But somehow everyone was eventually dying. It wasn't until I got into a less agro area where I could shoot a couple rounds at just one lame Psycho and actually saw what was going on.

The gun is still not all that great, because there is that delay before bullets explode, and it causes NO criticals, even if you stick darts to their head. So I tossed it into my vault, and went back to my The Old West Hip Cannon.

-Fm [1oM7]
"I'm not incorruptible, I am so corrupt nothing you can offer me is tempting." - Alfred Bester

I also found this oddball e-tech gun. Reminds me of the "Needler" from Halo. Shoots darts, they stick to whatever, then 3 seconds later, explode into fire and cause lingering burn damage (on top of their initial explosion).

At first I thought the gun was broken cause i was firing out all these darts and wasn't seeing any immediate effect. Hitting heads, no criticals, shooting torsos, not seeing them hurt. But somehow everyone was eventually dying. It wasn't until I got into a less agro area where I could shoot a couple rounds at just one lame Psycho and actually saw what was going on.

The gun is still not all that great, because there is that delay before bullets explode, and it causes NO criticals, even if you stick darts to their head. So I tossed it into my vault, and went back to my The Old West Hip Cannon.

Heh, I am also using one of those at the moment. Mine does explosion and corrosion when it explodes, so I'm just using it for robots, where it works nicely. Oh and The Warrior. Used only that one to take it down on the normal run through. But I wastly prefer something that damages on hit..

Its like letting tBC into a room. You wait a few seconds and he just sits there starring at you and goes "mew", so you turn your back, and then BOOM, everything is torn apart. I like my furniture ruined when I look at it, not some time after exposing it to toxic elements.

As an "I HAVE to open every box" type player, having an OP deathtrap allowed me to, on occasion, toss him out to do all the dirty work while I meandered around and looted stuffs. I know that might sound boring to some of you but... LOOT!

I have totally done that. You get the experience points when Deathtrap kills something so basically you are looting money, Eridium, equipment, and experience points. It's pure win.

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E-Tech weapons are nice, except for the freaking darts. Darts, bleh.

The darts are almost always homing even if they don't say so. I always have one for when my anarchy stacks won't allow me a sniper shot across a wide area. Equip that sucker, fire and forget, then listen to them complain about acid or fire then die while you are making your way towards the area.

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I lost my Moxi shotgun from Valentines last year. One of the best shot guns in the game, even though it was only a blue. It was a "DOH!" moment. I don't like to think about it.

I feel your pain. I lost a super corrosion pistol in BL1 that I still cuss about. I have no idea what happened to it. Every single shot caused lingering and powerful acid damage. @#$%!

Frigidman™, on 12 March 2014 - 07:33 AM, said:

Now only if auto-pickup worked worth a damn.

I'm not having problems with it. You hold your pickup button down for a few seconds and all the ammo in a chest will jump into your inventory. It you are looking at a weapon, doing that will equip it, jumps right into your hand. I use it for every ammo box and when I see an especially interesting weapon. Seems to work great for me, and it saves a lot of time.

Thain Esh Kelch, on 12 March 2014 - 08:30 AM, said:

Heh, I am also using one of those at the moment. Mine does explosion and corrosion when it explodes, so I'm just using it for robots, where it works nicely. Oh and The Warrior. Used only that one to take it down on the normal run through. But I wastly prefer something that damages on hit..

Its like letting tBC into a room. You wait a few seconds and he just sits there starring at you and goes "mew", so you turn your back, and then BOOM, everything is torn apart. I like my furniture ruined when I look at it, not some time after exposing it to toxic elements.

I don't see the problem with them. The delay timing is consistent and like I said, they make a great fire-and-forget weapon. I empty a magazine and by the time I've switched to a new weapon they pop and the badass is hit by two elemental weapons at the same time. It's completely devastating, plus it is a great substitute for a sniper rifle when you have 250 anarchy stacks. It will hit anything, even if it's moving and it has a HUGE damage effect with stacks.

I'm not having problems with it. You hold your pickup button down for a few seconds and all the ammo in a chest will jump into your inventory. It you are looking at a weapon, doing that will equip it, jumps right into your hand. I use it for every ammo box and when I see an especially interesting weapon. Seems to work great for me, and it saves a lot of time.

Right. But they touted "new auto-pickup looting! woo woo woo *twirl*". When in fact it kinda sorta picks up items that fell only on the ground (not always, and some areas it almost never picks up cash or ammo). It has clipping issues or something, very annoying. And having to mash n hold action with every single thing you already had to mash action on to open... omg gets painful on the index finger lol. And since it becomes 'habit' I find I mash n hold on some piece of crap weapon, and now I'm scrambling into my inventory to go find my good weapon to put back into my hands... and dont get me started on that very crappy GUI they 'invented' for BL2. I just cannot get used to it and its so painfully obscuring, and not what a good inventory gui should be.

The real way to have done auto-loot:

Anything that is Money, Eridium, Ammo, Health that is within 2 feet (no matter the clipping or if its in a open box/chest/locker), will just suck into you if you need it. Leave items that take up backback space where they are though. That way you only have to OPEN containers and for it to automatically grab 'the little nonsense that doesnt take up backpack space'. This would of course have to be a preference toggle you can turn off for Co-op.

Anyhow... rant aside... I love looting. Loot loot loot. Even the white crap... its worth money at a vender, and ups the challenge for selling popsnizzle.

-Fm [1oM7]
"I'm not incorruptible, I am so corrupt nothing you can offer me is tempting." - Alfred Bester